Administration

Vance says young voters ‘do not love’ Trump’s Middle East policy at TPUSA event

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/15/26 9:09 AM ET

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/15/26 9:09 AM ET

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Vice President Vance on Tuesday defended President Trump’s Middle East policy toward Iran and Gaza, saying young voters “do not love” the president’s actions in the region, during an event with Turning Point USA in Athens, Ga.

Members of the audience heckled the vice president 10 minutes into the start the event, The New York Times reported. One audience member yelled at Vance that “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” This was later followed by, “You’re killing children! You’re bombing children!” The person appeared to reference Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

“I recognize that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East, OK,” the vice president said, adding, “I understand.”

Vance mapped out the administration’s successes — from Trump’s immigration agenda to economic policies — before adding, “I’m not saying you have to agree with me on every issue. What I’m saying is don’t get disengaged because you disagree with the administration on one topic.”

“Get more involved. Make your voice heard even more,” he added. “That’s how we ultimately take the country back.”

The vice president said he agreed that “Jesus Christ does not support genocide” and said the audience should be grateful for the temporary ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. He added that the administration has “tried as much as we can to solve the problems, not just complain about them like the guy who just ran away.”

Vance also took questions from the audience about the tensions between Trump and Pope Leo XIV. The pope has been outspoken against military aggression abroad and has condemned the U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran. Trump has pushed back, accusing Leo of being “weak” on crime and claimed that he would not have been chosen by last year’s papal conclave had Trump not been president.

Vance, the second Catholic vice president in U.S. history, told Fox News on Monday that the pope should “stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic Church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.”

In Georgia, Vance said he welcomed Leo’s dialogue and that, “at the very least, they invite conversation,” The Associated Press reported. The vice president referred back to the pope’s criticisms of the conflict with Iran, saying there is “more than a thousand-year tradition of just-war theory, OK?”

“Now, we can of course have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just,” he added. “But I think that it’s important, in the same way that it’s important for the Vice President of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

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